Osama bin Laden: An audio clip purported to have been recorded by the former al Qaeda leader attempts to claim credit for the Arab Spring. REUTERS

May 20, 2011

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Islamic militant websites have posted an audio message apparently recorded by Osama bin Laden a week before Navy SEALs burst into his Pakistan hideout and killed him. In the 12-minute recording, a man that al Qaeda has identified as bin Laden praises the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, and encourages others in neighboring countries to rise up against their rulers. The posthumous message, if authenticated, would mark the first public statement by al Qaeda on this year's Arab Spring revolts. Is the terror group's attempt to coopt the uprisings a smart move?

Extremists could still hijack the Arab Spring: Bin Laden appears to have spent his final days concocting schemes to "extract maximum political leverage for al Qaeda from the Arab Spring uprisings," says Guy Adams in Britain's Independent. Are there holes in his recording? Of course — he praised uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, while remaining "notably silent about those in Syria, Yemen, and Libya." But this tape "will inevitably fuel concerns that radical elements" will capitalize on the Arab Spring to gain political power."Bin Laden's posthumous message seeks to hijack Arab Spring"

The protesters know they owe al Qaeda nothing: This "sad" bin Laden tape is nothing but a "limp, desperate attempt to hang on to the coattails" of the brave protesters transforming the Middle East, says Ishaan Tharoor in TIME. But it won't work. The dead man "hoots and hollers about the fall of U.S.-backed tyrants" in Egypt and Tunisia, but neglects to mention that the people who kicked them out want to establish democracy, not "a puritanical Caliphate.""Bin Laden's posthumous tape: The sad nothings of a dead man"